It’s Friday. I cannot tell you how glad that I am that it’s Friday. It’s been a rough week. I’ve had a lot of things on my mind.

Recruiting

Let’s start with the biggest thing: recruiting. I hate it. It makes me cranky and totally stresses me out. I actually told a frenchmen in our raid last night that we could only have one bitch in the raid, and that I had dibs, so he needed to chill out. See! Stress! As a guild, we are very fortunate in that for our progression level we have minimal amounts of turn over. We are also very fortunate that we have a very strong non-raiding rank in which a lot of people don’t have the time to devote to 25 man raids, but love the opportunity to fill in on one or two if we are ever short. It’s really nice because a lot of times we are able to recruit from within the guild, if non-raiding members indicate that they have an interest in raiding. This is seemless, stress free recruiting.

Right now, I am not engaging in seemless or stress free recruiting.

I have decided that when people make a decision to leave the game it’s very much like death. It always comes in threes. Unavoidable, I suppose. But then it causes panic (at least for me!). Ecspecially if it’s all within one section of the raiding trifecta. But even that isn’t the worst part about recruiting. Nope, not even close. The worst part is when you go to the Rercruiting Forum and peek through it, and see about a bazillion guilds slightly further progressed than you are who are also recruiting…the same classes you are. Then you have to just hope that you, as a guild, are able to offer potential members something that those further progressed guilds can’t offer. Not to mention that your recruitment post drops from the front page within 120 seconds of posting. And this is not an exageration!

Let’s add to that the strange phenomenom that we get tons of applications when we have no open positions…but as soon as we open something up, the applications are limited. (What is this, looking for a new job?!?! It’s easier to get one when you have one?) But not only limited, so many are in fact terrible. Seriously. People don’t take the time to give them thought, and just trudge their way through them. Sure, our application is long. Yes, it asks a lot. But we can also tell a lot about a person by how they complete the application. What they answer, what they don’t. (Yes, folks…you should really take the time and put some effort into your applications!).

We have a healing position open, and I think we are going to add an extra healer to the roster just to counter summertime. And I have gotten several applications from healers, where under the “post your UI” question they have not posted their UI…but then make statements such as “I use the Default UI”. How? As a healer, how do you use the default UI? Is that even possible?! But, being the decent tree that I am, I give the benefit of the doubt, and I go and dig up some parses if I can find them. And 9 times out of 10, no…no you do not “do fine” as a healer utilizing the default UI.

Then there are the fabulous applicants that apply and you start to get excited about a potential recruit, but then they inform you that they can’t raid unless the third moon of Jupiter lines up just so with the orbital pathing of Saturn. Any other times their internal focus does not permit them to raid. /head desk

Have I mentioned that I hate recruiting? Of all the things in the game, this is the one thing that can and will ruin the fun of the game for me beyond anything else. (btw…we are looking for a Disc Priest and Holy Paladin or Resto Shaman and a rogue or feral dps druid).

Surprises

So last night, I am just minding my business after our raid (2% wipe on HM Festergut! We should nab a kill on him this week I think! Totally cheered up my recruiting downer) when I get a tell from some random person asking if my GM was online. Brade was, in fact, online, but was also heading out the door to grab us dinner. After the day I had I wanted some comfort food. And last night, that food was Arby’s. So anyhow, I tell the person that I’m an officer and ask if there is anything that I can help them with.

So he goes on to tell me that he wanted to let us know that a member of our guild had been over on the alliance talking trash about me (Beru) and wanted to let us know because it had been bothering him. Before I can take him seriously, he’s got to tell me who he is. So I ask, and he gives me a name. So then I ask who the person is, and he provides me that name as well. I was a bit taken back as it’s someone that is no longer on our progression team, yet enjoying the generosity of remaining in our guild.

I thank the person for sharing the information. Advise him that not all personalities will always mesh, and that’s just the way life goes, but regardless I am always fair and honest. He thanks me for listening and logs out. I’m a bit upset, because that’s just how I am. When Brade gets home, I share the report with Brade and he’s of the mind to just remove the person from the guild. I don’t really want to over react or make a big deal of it, but I’m also not really happy about it. We work very hard to make a good name for ourselves on the server and try very hard to be respectful of our members, and I guess I sort of expected that in return. Even from members that are no longer, or have never been, part of our progression team.

Now, being the good tree that I am, I state that perhaps a conversation should be had with said person. See what it is he has to say about it. For all we know it’s a prank trying to get the person in trouble. And it very well could be, I don’t know. So, I think Brade’s going to bring it up with him, but I also think that if even a modicum of what we were told was true, said offender will no longer enjoy being a member of our guild.

I guess I just don’t get it. I mean, I know that I will not be universally adored, but I do try very hard to be patient and kind. But if this person truly has been going around saying nasty things about me, I have no idea what I did to offend this person to such a state that he feels the need to go to another faction and slander me publically. I was fairly upset about it last night. Today, I’m a bit indifferent. Regardless, if what we’ve been told is at all true, I will be saddened a little bit that someone that has enjoyed (and is still enjoying) our guild feels the need to run rampant and bash the place that gave him a home.

Blogging

Don’t worry! I love it and I’m not going anywhere! I just wanted to opine a bit. I have noticed a trend in both my blog and the community that there is less and less regarding the current game to discuss! It’s interesting to me. I mean, I always have something to say about everything, but I find myself doing more self-reflective or social type posts as this expansion winds down. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with it at all, it’s just different. I am sure once Cataclysm starts to ramp up and draw closer, the lacsidasical feeling I have right now will become a frenzied drive for information.

I guess I find that more days right now I scratch my head looking for a topic, rather than having them just jump out at me as they generally have a tendancy to do. I have some drafts that I’ve not finished yet, that I may or may not get completed. But mostly, I just have random thoughts that are swimming around my head like the little snowflakes in a waterglobe, and I’m just trying to catch enough of them to put together choerent thoughts, with varying success. (As if you couldn’t tell from this post!).

SAN

So, I’ve made a decision. With the recruiting, and the already voiced issues regarding how I feel when I am over playing in SAN, I will be transferring my baby druid back to Llane, and likely over to the horde as well. While I’m recruiting, I feel that it’s important that I am available to potential applicants during my free time. But, I am really enjoying leveling another druid. So, back to Llane I go. I will be leaving my paladin over in SAN, and I may pop over now and again, most likely.

But with homesickness I’ve been feeling when I’m over there coupled with the administrative responsibilites that I have in my guild, I do need to make myself more available. So, those that have seen me over on the weekends, you probably will be seeing much less of me. It’s nothing personal! I am going to initiate the transfer tonight when I get home from work.

Hard Modes

At the start of the week we set out a goal for the guild. 3 Hard Modes down. After two raid nights, we got out 3 hard modes, and are very close to a kill on a fourth. I couldn’t be more pleased. We have a raid scheduled Sunday, which hopefully will occur with Easter being that day. If not, we can knock out everything we have left up normal mode, and then pick up with some new Hard Mode targets for next week. Either way, we’ve had a great raid week, and a good start to the ICC hard modes. We have plenty of time left in this expansion to work on finishing out the zone, and I want to be able to keep everyone entertained as the expasion starts to draw to a close.

Oh, and I got a Heroic Abacus!

How about you? Any jumbled Friday confessions that you’d like to make? ;-)

Yes, recruitment totally sucks. I fight with our RL most often over his decisions about which HMs we will or won’t attempt (and how long we’ll make attempts on each new one before moving on) because of how the lack of a kill will negatively affect recruitment. I totally understand where you’re coming from though when you’re close to getting a new kill (or once you’ve gotten it). The feeling is totally euphoric and not from the “hooray we got it” standpoint, but from the “hooray we got it! This will make it so much better for recruitment” perspective. It’s just sick.

As for the posts falling off the first page in mere minutes, recruit minions to help bump your threads. I asked for volunteers and have a couple who have actually stuck that are able to log in and bump our threads several times a day. It really makes a difference when I’m bogged down at work and can’t bump them myself.

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If you intend to use anything on this website, please have the courtesy to attribute what you share, and offer links back to this site. If you are unsure if you can use the content found here, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. ~Beru